FIrst Wednesday Taking Care of Wildlife Challenge: Fall Bird Migration: Keep Bird Baths Full and Turn Off Your Outdoor Lights

PLEASE!

 Wowzer, look at the number of birds who flew over Tennessee earlier this week. Tennessee is experiencing a drought right now so water is essential. Food helps, too. While you're thinking about birds, please turn off your outdoor lights at night!

And, Davidson county statistics!

Over 39 Million birds flew over Tennessee overnight on Monday of this week...and millions more will continue migrating south through November.

Birds migrate south as winter approaches because insects and other foods are dwindling. They're traveling to areas that have food and nesting. Some birds stay put because they can find adequate food and water, others are traveling anywhere from a hundred miles to several hundred. The birds that are being monitored by Bird Cast are long-distance migrators. "They typically move from breeding ranges in the United States and Canada to wintering grounds in Central and South America. It's an arduous journey and over 350 different species of North American birds are long distance migrators." (source)

 

Nuthatches don't usually migrate from middle TN. They are frequent visitors to bird feeders

Migration is a natural phenomena that happens every fall and spring. Their journey is physically taxing and the lack of adequate food and water supplies along the way, bad weather, exposure to predators and the ever increasing danger from colliding into lit up buildings all add to making this journey hazardous.

Here's what we can do to help birds during their arduous journey

 

Provide food

Fill your garden with native plants that attract insects that birds will need or have seeds that birds eat both provide needed fuel. Plant these: sunflowers, purple coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, and various asters, goldenrods, and native grasses like Big Bluestem and Little Bluestem. For birds that prefer nuts, plant native oaks, hickories, and hazels. Leaving these plants standing with their seed heads intact through fall and winter provides a crucial food source for migratory birds.

Provide fresh water

Make your windows obvious, especially the big picture windows. Windows are reflective and confuse birds. Add decals, paint spider webs, stripes or designs, this will keep birds from colliding into them when they stop at our feeders. 

Go lights out at 11pm to 6am during migration (spring and fall)

Become an advocate: Work to get your community involved in turning off their outdoor lights from 11pm to 6am every night. 

Join local groups advocating for birds and other critters: Bird Safe Nashville, Nashville Urban Bird, The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee, Tennessee Environmental Council

Investigate where migrating birds might be staging near you. For years Purple Martins have been roosting in the trees in downtown Nashville. I didn't see their roosting site in August and really missed seeing them. The photo below is from September 1, 2025

 

 

Sept 1, 2025 downtown Nashville

Providing Food for birds is a year round gardening commitment

Because we get a lot of joy from observing them in our gardens, Michael and I feed the birds and provide water year round. I garden for wildlife so the garden has been designed with critters in mind. In fact, nearly every plant has been chosen with birds, insects and other critters in mind. My native shrubs provide food, nesting and shelter for mammals and birds, as well as being a host plant to butterflies, moths and other insects that keep my wildflower garden thriving. Native plants are also a haven for tasty insects which so many migrants, particularly the Warblers need for fuel. 

I hope that there's enough food in the garden for hungry migrating birds that stopover; if not, there will always be supplemental seed and suet in feeders and water in the bird baths and raised ponds. Biologists refer to places as “stopover” habitats, areas where birds stop to rest, eat, and seek shelter from predators. Some stopover sites are so large they can even be called “staging areas” because so many birds come together to rest and then continue their migration. One of the most famous staging areas around the world is along the Platte River in central Nebraska, where more than 500,000 sandhill cranes gather in a spectacle of migration! (source) That's on my "got to see list".

 Water is essential to migrating Birds.

 My garden has been crispy from the heat dome that sat over middle Tennessee for weeks. 100˚ days and no rain were devastating for the garden. We asked John, the owner of The Woodthrush, what we could be doing for migrating birds. He said that water was super important for migrating birds. We are keeping our birdbaths topped up with clean water for our resident and visiting birds. 

 

 

Here's a little bit more about birds and water that you might like to know.

Birds need water just as much as they need food. The birds that live and visit our garden need dependable water to survive. Each day, an adult bird needs to drink enough water to make up 5 percent of its body weight to replace the water lost from waste removal, respiration and evaporation. Water performs a number of important functions: bathing, to clean feathers and remove parasites. They get some of their water/moisture from the insects and fruit they eat, but, they need to drink water every day. 

 

How we can provide water:

• Bird baths. Place them near cover so birds can hide from prey. Place in shade so water stays fresh. Change water often. I heat mine all winter so there is water for birds when it's freezing out.
  
• Place water dishes on the ground since many birds prefer drinking water like this.
  
• If you have the resources a pond or stream would be ideal.
• Raised bed ponds with a way for birds to safely drink.
  
• A shallow galvanized container with rocks for birds to perch on works well, too.
  
• Misters, water wigglers, and drippers invite birds to come to bird baths and natural pools.
  
• When desperate for rain, as we've been lately, I turn on an over head sprinkler and watch the birds fly in and out of the water. It's magical, they arrive the minute the water is turned on. It makes me happy and takes care of many of the critters. I do it for the birds post.

 

Migrating birds need this very important thing to happen, too.

Birds that migrate or hunt at night navigate by moonlight and starlight. Migratory birds depend on cues from properly timed seasonal schedules. Artificial lights can cause them to migrate too early or too late and miss ideal climate conditions for nesting, foraging, and other behaviors. It can also cause them to be attracted to illuminated building where they can collide and die. (source) 

Collision hazards for birds come in many forms and can affect many types of birds. In fact, nearly one billion birds collide with glass in the U.S. alone each year. Most of these (preventable) fatalities happen at homes and buildings shorter than four stories tall. Please make note of that fact...Birds are in danger of our lit-up homes, not just sky-scrappers, wind-turbines or towers.

According to research scientist Christopher Kyba, for nocturnal animals “the introduction of artificial light probably represents the most drastic change human beings have made to their environment.” 

“Predators use light to hunt, and prey species use darkness as cover,” Kyba explains. “Near cities, cloudy skies are now hundreds or even thousands of times brighter than they were 200 years ago. We are only beginning to learn what a drastic effect this has had on nocturnal ecology.” (source)

Migrating Purple Martins 2024

One last thing.

This is my plea to you all. Please turn off your outdoor lights from 11pm to 6am every night.  I wish you would consider turning off your eave lights, tree up-lighting and porch lights every night, but if not always, please, turn them off during bird migration. For more information about the effects of artificial lighting on all living creatures go to my post First Wednesday Challenge: Every Day Needs A Night.

Thank for reading, xoxogail

 PS. Birds you might not recognize could be stopping by to nosh at your feeders and take a dip in your water features. To help you id them I recommend the  Merlin Bird Id.

 

 

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.